Opportunities
by Verse Ranger
Summary: In the spring of 2147, Starfleet is growing fast, and that's creating challenges for young Lieutenant Trip Tucker. He just needs to remember what his granddad used to say… Every challenge is just an opportunity you haven't recognized yet.
1. Chapter 1

**Opportunities **

In the spring of 2147, Starfleet is growing fast, and that's creating challenges for young Lieutenant Trip Tucker. He just needs to remember what his granddad used to say… **Every challenge is just an opportunity you haven't recognized yet.**

**Disclaimers**

_Star Trek: Enterprise_ and its characters are copyright CBS/Paramount. No copyright infringement is intended by me. This work is solely for the purpose of entertainment and is not for profit.

**Acknowledgements**

The idea that Trip made a name for himself by redesigning the plasma injector system is borrowed from the story _Three Months on Vulcan_ by startraveller776 at .

Once again tremendous thanks to **Artisticmom2** at Delphic Expanse for her extremely helpful Beta reading.

All dates used in the timing of events or the ages of characters for this story are taken from **Memory Alpha** where available.

**Chapter 1: Challenges**

_Midmorning, Wednesday, April 5__th__, 2147_

_Starfleet Headquarters (Main Facility) San Francisco, Earth_

Trip headed down the hallway to Archer's office at a quick pace. _This must be bad_, he thought. Things had been going really well, and that made Archer very relaxed, so a call out of the blue to the Engineering Campus for Trip to come to his office right away was bad. _Stay calm, if it were something really huge, you'd know about it already_.

Finally, he reached the door and stopped for a moment to read the plaque on the wall just above the door activator: J. Archer, Commander, NX-01. Trip always liked the clever way Archer did things. Using his rank as a position title for a ship that had no official captain and was still just an engineering pipe dream at this point was just the kind of thing Archer could always think up and get away with. Trip smiled a bit and nodded to himself; _No matter how bad this is Archer will figure a way out of it_. Then he took a slow, deep breath and pressed the access request button for Archer's door.

Trip heard Archer's cheerful voice call "Come in." That was odd. Something didn't make sense. He activated the door and waked through, seeing Archer sitting behind his desk with a smile on his face. Trip grimaced, totally confused at this point. "Hey Capt'n. What's up?"

Archer looked at his friend from his desk with a sympathetic expression and said, "Well Trip, I've got some good news, and some bad news."

Trip stood, almost frozen in place for a moment trying to figure out what Archer was talking about. Whatever Archer had commed him to talk about was starting to sound more personal, than project related, and Trip couldn't think of anything in his personal life or situation that had changed. In fact, he didn't really have a personal life at the moment with all the hours he was putting in on the design of the NX-01. Trip was wracking his brain trying to come up with anything that Archer might need to talk to him about.

Finally, Jon said, "Take a seat Trip." Trip took a seat on the couch against the wall of Archer's office, but still looked slightly confused. Once Trip was seated Archer continued with a smile. "First, you've got to stop calling me Captain. I'm just the Project Officer for Crew Development on the NX project," Archer winked as he finished. They both knew Jon wanted this command with all his heart, and he'd make it happen one way or another. "And it's in that capacity I've called you here", Archer continued his tone getting a little more serious. "Admiral Forrest called this morning. They're publishing the results of the promotion board later today, but he wanted me to be aware of a couple of, let's just say, unusual situations."

Trip suddenly remembered the entire issue of the promotion board. It was the first one Starfleet had ever run. Up until now, things had been a lot more casual. Everyone pretty much got promoted every six years, unless one of the admirals had a problem with you. Of course, there were exceptions to that too, like himself. He'd been given a "merit promotion" to lieutenant at age 21 with only three years in service, and now that he'd been tagged to be on the NX-01 project, his chances of getting the Chief Engineer slot at such a young age had caused a lot of grumbling from some people. Of course, they were mostly people who wanted the post of Chief Engineer on the NX-01. Trip rolled his tongue into his cheek as he considered the implications of what Archer was telling him.

The worst part of the entire situation was Trip didn't think he should have been promoted that early himself. If Stanford hadn't awarded him a doctorate to claim some credit for his plasma injector design he'd have been promoted at six years, just like everyone else. But back then Starfleet was getting a lot of flak for not being "academic" enough for an organization that was supposed to be about scientific exploration, so they had a policy that if you completed a PhD, you got promoted immediately. Thinking about the entire situation still put Trip in a foul mood five years later.

Archer could see exactly where Trip's mind was going. Jon figured Trip was the only person in Starfleet who would feel bad about a merit promotion. "It's air through the engine Trip. There's no point brooding about it. But it does put you in kind of an odd situation with all the new, formal rules they're putting down." Trip seemed to remain impassive, so Archer pressed on. "The good news is you're on the promotion list for commander."

Trips eyebrows went up and he leaned forward, with his forearms on his knees. "And the bad news?"

Archer lost his smile, not sure how Trip was going to take the next part. "They're going to make you wait a while to pin it on."

Trip narrowed his eyes and scrunched up his face. "How long?"

Archer tensed up for a second and his eyes slid away from Trip's face as he tried to find a way to soften the news a little. The bluntness of Trip's question gave him little room to maneuver though, so he simply answered him. "About four years."

Trip sat straight up and his head pulled back like he was absorbing a blow, then he slowly slumped forward with his elbows on his knees. "Four years?" Trips face contorted into a mix of shock and pain. Up until this, promotions had been immediate. They announce you were getting promoted and you pinned it on. Trip had always told himself the rank and the pay didn't matter to him. It was the work and the chance to be one of Earth's first deep space explorers that he cared about. But this hurt his pride, he couldn't deny it. Maybe he had been promoted too early before, but he'd busted his butt for the last five years to prove he deserved it. This felt like a slap in the face after all that hard work.

Jon could see his friend was trying to sort through it all, and tried to give him some moral support. "I know exactly how you feel Trip, they're holding back my promotion date too." Archer had been recruited for the test pilot program, and one of the incentives had been accelerated promotion. He'd made lieutenant in four years, and commander four years after that.

Trip looked surprised by that news. But he still hadn't recovered from hearing about how long they were going to make him wait to pin on his new rank. Finally Trip managed to ask in a quiet voice "How long? When are they promoting you?"

Archer shrugged his shoulders. "April, 2150, just before they make the announcement about who the captain of the first NX is going to be. So, in about three years." Trip was still sitting silent and virtually motionless, which worried Archer. He'd been prepared for Trip to fly off the handle, but not for him to shut down like this.

Jon pressed on, trying to find a way to minimize the impact. "Trip, you were one of the last people to come into Starfleet directly. Everyone has to go through the Schoolhouse now, a minimum of three years for a commission, even if you've got an advanced degree. This just puts you on track with everyone who's coming in now. Well, technically, you'll still be ahead, just not quite as far."

Trips body relaxed slightly, and his eyes narrowed a little. But whatever he was thinking, he wasn't willing to share.

Archer tried again to get Trip to put things in perspective. "I know it's disappointing, but just imagine if you'd decided to go get your doctorate instead of signing on with Starfleet when you did. If it took you four years, you'd have graduated in '43. If you'd come into Starfleet then, they'd have made you do the three year program at the Schoolhouse, and you'd have graduated last year as an ensign. You'd make it onto the NX crew, no problem, but you wouldn't be in line to be Chief Engineer."

Trip finally nodded and seemed to come back to life a little. Archer took a deep breath, and let it out slowly to cover his sigh of mixed relief and exasperation. If this part the conversation had been this rough, Jon was really concerned how Trip was going to take the next part. "There's something else we need to talk about Trip." Seeing Trip stiffen up again, Jon decided to just drive ahead and get through it as fast as possible. "The primary engineering work is basically done. Actual construction doesn't start for a year. So, you've got some time to fill, and Admiral Forrest wants you to go to Command College."

Trip sat bolt upright and scrunched his face up in confusion. "Why do I need to go to Command College? There's still lots of work left to do. Sub-component designs need to be finalized and reliability testing is just starting. And we've still got the entire model testing process on the primary design to complete. Command College is six months. I'll never get caught up."

Archer smiled a little and shook his head slightly. Trip Tucker was a force of nature all by himself. Officially, his position was the NX project's liaison to Commodore Jeffries' design team, and AG Robinson was his boss as the Project Officer for Design and Construction. It had made perfect sense to bring Trip in on the final design process for the Warp 5 Engine, and then once he was working on the Engineering Campus every day, no one could make him stop. If there was one thing people who knew Trip understood, it was that once he got an idea into his head to do something, he never let anything get in his way. And now Admiral Forest had given Jon exactly that job: get Trip to stop working on the biggest engineering project of his life, maybe the biggest engineering project in Earth's history.

"Actually, Command College is eight months now. Look Trip, Forest is playing the long game here. He's afraid someone is going to propose making Command College a requirement to be a Division Chief on NX ships, so some of the other candidates will be qualified for Chief Engineer, and you won't be." It wasn't un-true; it just wasn't exactly the whole truth.

Trip nodded his head slowly and responded, "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. And I can always come in on the weekends to keep caught up on what's going on at the Engineering Campus."

Jon sagged in his chair at those words. There wasn't going to be any way around this, so he was just going to have to lay it out there. "Trip, consider this an intervention."

Trip shot Archer a clearly confused look. "Intervention?"

"Trip, Forrest called all of us together, me, Jeffries, AG. He's afraid you're working too hard. You're going to burn yourself out on this project. You've been going at it 20 hours a day, 7 days a week for most of the last year. You have to be alive and sane when the ship launches to be its Chief Engineer." Jon paused a moment to see how Trip was going to take all of this.

Trip looked confused. "Why was AG there?"

"Because technically, he's your boss right now," Jon reminded him.

"Oh, yeah, right," Trip responded in a flat tone.

"Look, you've done a hell of a lot of amazing work. But it's time to take a break. Command College will give you a chance to learn some new things and relax a little." But Jon didn't think he was getting through to Trip yet.

"But I can still come in on the weekends and catch up on what's going on, right?" Trip asked hopefully, his southern drawl gaining strength as his stress built up again.

"No Trip. No coming in on weekends. Just relax, head down the coast and hit the beach on your days off." Jon hesitated before he spoke again, but went ahead and said what was on his mind. "Find yourself a girlfriend, enjoy life a little."

Trip winced a little at that. He was still hurting over how things had crashed and burned with Lisa last year. Archer had told him most flight school romances ended up that way, but it didn't take the sting away. Besides, they'd still been going out for more than two years after he finished flight school, so he figured they'd beaten the odds. Trip decided he needed to move the conversation off if his personal life. "So, what about you Capt'n. What's Forrest gonna have you do? You know you're not making any friends sitting in that chair."

Jon shot Trip a disapproving look over his use of "captain" again, but he knew Trip was right. Admiral Forrest's decision to openly recruit civilians for the NX crew had sent shock waves through Starfleet when the word hit the street. Lots of people had dedicated their lives to Starfleet, waiting for this opportunity. Most of Jon's peers now saw him as Forrest's hatchet man. Every bright young person Archer recruited into Starfleet meant it was going to be that much harder for the old hands to find a slot on the crew manifest, especially if they were officers. Jon felt for his friends and colleagues. He knew exactly what it felt like to not make the cut after coming in second for the NX Alpha flight. But ultimately, Forrest was right. These ships needed Earth's best and brightest. "I'm not going anywhere Trip. This job keeps me busy enough to stay out of trouble, and there's still a lot of talent out there to find."

Trip got a wry little smile on his face as he spotted his opening. There weren't many ways to get an advantage on Archer in a conversation, but he'd discovered in the last few weeks this was one of them. "So, more trips down to Brazil I take it," Trip said in an even tone, as if it was just an innocent observation. But he had to work to suppress an impish grin as he said it.

Archer's eyes narrowed a little in anger, but he was put on defensive. "I've only been down there three times in the last two month, and it's purely business."

Trip smile grew as he knew he had hit his target. "I don't know. That seems like a lot of effort for one prospective Starfleet officer. She must be pretty special. What's her name again?" He could see the twinkle grow in Archer's eyes as his mind drifted to her.

Jon answered before even thinking, "Hoshi. Hoshi Sato. And yes, she's amazing. She's finishing up her doctorate in Xeno-Linguistics at the best language institute in the world, and she's only 17. You give her 100 words and a dozen sentences, and she can speak a simplified version of the language in a few minutes. It's the most astonishing thing you've ever seen."

Trip nodded as he imagined it was pretty damned impressive to see someone do that. "So, sounds like you're gonna be spending a lot of time south of the equator."

Archer shook his head. "No need. She's already applied and been accepted. She starts the three year program at the Schoolhouse in August."

Trip nodded again. Now he really was impressed. It had taken Jeffries and his crew almost 6 months to talk him into joining Starfleet at that age, and they hadn't had to sell him on spending three or four years just going to classes to earn the right to actually start working.

Jon had a pretty good idea he knew what Trip was thinking. "I can be very persuasive," he said while he smiled and nodded.

Now Trip was genuinely curios about this girl. "Starfleet doesn't have a linguistics program. What's she gonna study for the next three years?"

Jon was beaming now as he talked about Hoshi. "I recommended she do computer work, so she could help develop some new translation technology and algorithms for improving our auto-translation systems. So she decided to do a dual major in computer engineering, hardware and software."

Trip was getting seriously impressed himself by this person. He continued to smile as he thought about whether it was a good idea or not to tease Archer a little. "So she's a real prodigy then. Maybe I should spend some time with her once she gets to San Francisco. You know, help her make the transition. I've got a lot of experience being someone like that hitting the real world at that age."

Archer's demeanor turned sour instantaneously. "You know the regs. No fraternization between active duty and cadets."

_That's rich_, Trip thought. Jon Archer and Erika Hernandez were half the reason there were formal regs against 'fraternization' at all now. No one talked about it, especially them, and Trip wasn't really sure exactly what had happened. But something had definitely happened when she was his XO a couple of years ago. Archer's reaction told him he'd hit a nerve though, so he pressed on. "Who said anything about socializing? I could volunteer to be her active duty mentor while she's going through the program."

Jon's eyes narrowed. "That's already taken care of." Then he saw Trip starting to chuckle under his breath and he realized exactly what Trip was doing. "Look, we can talk about all this over a drink at the 602 Club later. Back to the issue at hand."

Trip deflated immediately, and his shoulders sagged as he ran his tongue into his cheek, trying to think of a way out of this. But he really didn't see one. If Admiral Forrest wanted this, then it was going to happen. Maybe he could just play along for a while, then start to work his way back into the engineering teams after a couple of months. "So, when does Command College start up?"

Sensing he was finally on glide path for this part of the conversation, Jon relaxed a little. "August. The timing is perfect. You spend eight months there, and then you're back on the NX program by April of next year when construction starts at Space Dock One."

Trip perked up a little and nodded at the thought of being part of the construction process from the beginning. Then the obvious finally hit him. "August is four months from now. Why are you making it sound like I've got to wrap up stuff at the Engineering Campus right away?"

Jon steeled himself. Now was the really hard sell. "Well, there's this temporary duty assignment that requires an engineer who's familiar with the NX Beta that's come down from Starfleet Headquarters. You're the perfect choice to fill it, and it starts on Monday."

"A temp duty gig? For what section?" Trip asked incredulously.

Jon braced himself for the reaction he knew was coming and said in a matter of fact tone, "Protocol and Public Relations."

**Author's Notes:** This is the product of me getting stuck on another project, and realizing I needed to develop a lot of background for the characters before I could move forward. It's an effort to make sense of a lot of little things that just don't add up unless you put some effort into explaining them, such as how Trip is a Lieutenant at the age of 22 after only four years in Starfleet in the episode First Flight.


	2. Chapter 2

As Trip starts his Temporary Duty assignment, his mind drifts to places he doesn't visit often. Then, fortune throws him a curveball, as a new character emerges in the story.

While the first chapter dealt with trying to sort out some of the institutional inconsistencies in the show, this chapter deals more with people and sorting out relationship inconsistencies.

**Disclaimers**

_Star Trek: Enterprise_ and its characters are copyright CBS/Paramount. No copyright infringement is intended by me. This work is solely for the purpose of entertainment and is not for profit.

**Acknowledgements**

Once again tremendous thanks to **Artisticmom2** at Delphic Expanse for her extremely helpful Beta reading.

All dates used in the timing of events or the ages of characters for this story are taken from **Memory Alpha** where available.

**Chapter 2: One Door Closes, another Door Opens**

_Afternoon, Thursday, April 13__th__, 2147_

_Downtown San Francisco (Earth)_

"I've lived in this town eight years and I still can't figure it out," Trip muttered to himself. It shouldn't be this hard to find a building the size of a city block. He thought he knew where he was, but he was beginning to realize that he was probably mistaken. It was all these hills. Florida didn't have hills, it was nice and flat.

And it was Lisa's fault. She was the sporty, athletic type. She'd never wanted to hang out in town when they could jet off to New Zealand or the Gulf Coast or wherever and spend a couple of days doing sporty stuff. _OK, I never minded that. But still, I'd know this town a lot better if she'd have been happy to just stay home for a weekend._ And this was exactly why Trip hated the idea of not working on the NX project right now. When his mind wasn't consumed with solving engineering problems, it wandered into places it shouldn't go. There was no point thinking about Lisa any more. It was done, had been for a year. She'd made it clear that he had a choice between putting in extra time on the NX project or getting any time with her. _But all the "extra time" I was putting in on Saturdays wasn't extra at all, it was absolutely necessary for the project._ And just has he'd told himself to stop thinking about it, here he was thinking about it again.

And all that was irrelevant now. Right now he needed to find this place. Archer was persuasive. _How did I ever let him talk me into this_, Trip wondered. That wasn't really true. He knew exactly how Archer had sold him on this, _"Imagine four months of not having a Vulcan 'observer' looking over your shoulder at everything you do."_ Yeah, that had done it.

He was just about to pull his pad out and start up the GPS when he turned the corner and saw what he was looking for: The Center for the Celebration of Contemporary Human Creativity. This was what his granddaddy would have called 'a monument to human self-congratulation.' But everyone put up with his touch of cynicism, because being a WWIII vet gave him a right to it. And in this case, he would have to agree with granddad. The Starfleet PR office had spent the last two and a half days coaching him, and part of that had been a history lesson on this place. It was built after the Eugenics War to celebrate the greatness of un-augmented humanity, when people thought that war was going to be the last war ever fought on Earth. It was basically a modern art museum, but they didn't call it that because the words 'art' and 'museum' were 'suspect' at the time.

As he approached the building's main entrance Trip resolved that he was done thinking about Lisa. So instead he pondered the question of why the only girl he felt any sense of interest in at the moment was a brilliant prodigy linguist he'd never met, and he was pretty sure Archer had a serious crush on. But what did Archer know about what it was like to grow up with that kind of pressure on you? Trip knew, and it would be nice to be able to connect with someone who also understood how each achievement only made people expect more. _OK, maybe I don't know exactly what it's like to earn a PhD at seventeen._ Trip had tried to be as normal as possible growing up, staying in high school and playing football while he was earning a master's degree from MIT remotely. But he imagined he still had a pretty good guess of what it was like for this Hoshi Sato. And she'd probably appreciate being able to talk to someone who understood that too.

"Excuse me sir, may I help you?"

The question startled Trip out of his thoughts, and he realized he was standing in the entrance hall of the building, and a person was actually speaking to him. As far as he knew, every reception and information desk in the world was automated these days, so the presence of a living person took Trip completely off guard. Talking to a person was a completely different process than just tapping a screen so he struggled to articulate. Finally, he managed to say "Uh… I'm here to meet… someone… about the warp technology exhibit." He reached into his jacket pocket to start to retrieve his PADD so he could find the name of the person he was supposed to meet, but apparently that wasn't necessary, as the woman was clearly tapping some buttons on the screen in front of her to notify the proper person he was here.

The woman's face told him he had not made a stellar first impression, as she stated in rather flat tone yet somewhat disapproving tone, "Just wait here." Trip imagined that she was probably thinking _'Not only is he late, he's an idiot. Maybe he's late because he's an idiot.' _The disapproval was understandable. He was at least three quarters of an hour since he was supposed to have arrived.

Trip briefly thought about trying to strike up a conversation with the woman to dig his way out of the hole he was in impression wise, but then he quickly decided it was a lost cause. Besides, he was still trying to figure out what was bugging him about the entire conversation with Archer about this Japanese wonder girl, so he let his mind wonder back to that topic while he waited. He wasn't really sure what was bothering him about the conversation he had had with Archer, but something was. And then, it finally hit him why he couldn't pin down what was bothering him. It was because it wasn't one thing; it was a bunch of things all together. Each one bothered him a little, but all together, they bothered him a lot.

The first thing was that the situation totally captured the one thing Trip didn't really get about Archer; the way he dealt with women. It wasn't the Archer was cad, chasing every woman he met and promising women things he never meant to follow through on. No, it was more that sometimes Archer could be what Trip's granddad called a "putz." Not that Trip knew exactly what the word meant, but he understood the general idea of it being a man that wasn't willing to make the hard choices a man had to make. Whatever had happened between Archer and Erica, it wasn't entirely over. He'd seen the way Archer bolted whenever the two of them ended up in the same room. At first Trip thought it was because he couldn't stand to be around her. But now he realized it was because he didn't' trust himself around her.

But being still hung up on Erica didn't stop him from having his on again off again _thing_ with Rebecca whatshername, the English astrophysicist who was here a few months every year to teach at the Schoolhouse and consult with Starfleet. _And all that's fine and dandy. They're all consenting adults. But really, the man should just make a choice and be done with it._ Maybe there was something Trip was missing, but it just seemed like all of Archer's reasons for not committing, were just excuses. Trip just figured Archer would be a lot happier in his personal life if he just focused on one relationship and tried to make it work.

So now, Archer had a crush on the Japanese linguist, which was fine. In fact, if she was only half as impressive in person as Archer made her out to be, it would be hard for any man not to be a little taken with her. But Archer wanted to put a giant "out of bounds" sign on her, when he already had two women he hadn't figured what he was doing with. And Archer knew he couldn't even do anything about Hoshi Sato for at least three years. Though being her active duty mentor while she was going through three years of training would certainly give Archer the time to get to know her for real. And maybe that type of situation was exactly what Archer needed to get past Erica. Spending that much time getting to know an intelligent woman in a totally platonic situation might be a good thing. Trip could only imagine what the fallout with the brass would be if Archer and this Hoshi started dating after she graduated from the Schoolhouse though.

And that led to the second thing that was bugging him about this. Archer really didn't understand at all why Trip had an interest in this Japanese girl. Archer had just assumed Trip was interested for the same reason he was. But that really wasn't it at all. Trip didn't have any clue if he'd want to chase this girl or not. But he did know that she was the first person he had any chance to meet in a long time that he might be able to talk to about things he was experiencing that might actually understand. He strongly suspected she knew what being totally out of place felt like too.

It wasn't just that he was a southerner in San Francisco, thought it would be nice to have someone around who knew what it was like to grow up in the South. It was an odd thing about twenty-second century Earth, that you could practically live anywhere, and work half a world away. So unless you were someone that needed to be physically present to do a job, like a plumber, electrician, or boat mechanic, there was no reason to move far from where you grew up. You could run a factory in Argentina from an office in Moscow without any problem. Southerners in particular didn't tend to leave the South; they liked to stay close to home and family, and those that left usually didn't feel very "Southern," that's why they left.

It wasn't just the fact that Trip felt totally out of place in San Francisco. He felt out of time too. All the officers who were his age in Starfleet were either brand new ensigns or weren't even officers yet, they were still cadets at the Schoolhouse, and he was a Lieutenant with 8 years of service already. And he couldn't even relate to what the cadets at the schoolhouse or the new ensigns were going through, since he'd barely spent any time there. When he'd joined Starfleet, they'd tossed him a uniform, a stack of regulations, helped him find and apartment, and put him to work on Jeffries' engineering team in the space of a couple of weeks.

There were some damn fine engineers in Starfleet, but most of them were competing with him for a job on the first NX ship, and that didn't make a good foundation for being friends. And pretty much all of the team he had worked with on the NX Alpha project were still giving him the cold shoulder for not bringing them in on the "big heist" that saved the program. He'd just wanted to protect his friends, because if anything had gone wrong, even though Starfleet didn't have its own prison, he was pretty sure they could have rented space for anyone involved if they destroyed the only other NX prototype. The bottom line was, there were a lot of people Trip was friendly with right now, but besides Archer, and maybe AG, not a lot of people he really considered friends in this town.

And that brought him to what was really bugging him most about this situation. Archer just didn't understand how out of place Trip felt here. This was practically Archer's home town. He'd lived here since he was a kid and gone to college just down the road at Stanford. But just because it was home for Archer didn't mean Trip felt at home here. And that was why Trip needed to work so much. He needed not to be reminded how much he felt like he didn't fit here sometimes, and having time on his hands in this strange town reminded him a lot. Archer was a great friend, but sometimes he just missed things like that. Of course, it wasn't like Trip really wanted to be back in Florida right now. Sure, he missed his family, but there was no way he could be happy just sitting back and working on boat engines with his dad. He knew that Starfleet was exactly where he belonged; he just didn't exactly feel like he belonged here, in San Francisco, right now.

Trip was pulled from his thoughts by the clicking sound of a woman's shoes on the marble floor of the museum hall. As he pulled himself out of his little world of thought, his eyes came to rest on the woman who was walking towards him. She was young, probably in her early twenties, a lot younger than he'd expected to be running a major exhibit like this one was supposed to be. She was wearing a smart, professional outfit and her blond hair was tied back, but he could see the hints of sun bleaching in it. And her skin had a copper tone to it that someone could only get from being in real sunshine, which was odd, because April was way too early to get that much sun in this part of California.

Another thing he noticed about this woman was that she had a distinct look of disappointment about her as she approached him, which made Trip feel decidedly self-conscious all of a sudden. He could understand her being angry out how late he was for their meeting, but this seemed like more than that. _Maybe I'm underdressed for the situation_, he thought. The team as Starfleet Protocol had warned him that this place took itself very seriously, and he needed to dress well to make a good impression. Unfortunately, Trip hadn't been paying much attention to his civilian wardrobe lately. Lisa had never been a 'get dressed up and hit the town' girl, so all he had to wear that was dressy were a couple pairs of khaki pants, and an old pair of shoes they called "military oxfords" that had been issued to him by Starfleet when he first joined, but dropped from the uniform years ago. His shirt was just a polo shirt, but at least it had a collar. And to cover up the fact that it had short sleeves, he was wearing the nicest jacket he had, which was his old leather flight jacket from when he'd been in flight school. But seeing the very stylish outfit this woman was wearing, he suddenly felt like a hobo.

As she came to a halt in front of him, Trip made sure he was standing tall with a serious look on his face. She stood there in a professional stance with her arms holding her PADD in front of her and started to introduce herself, and as soon as she spoke, Trip's serious expression melted into a lopsided grin.

"I'm Natalie, the designer for the exhibition." Her tone was even and serious, but she had the sweetest Southern accent that Trip could imagine. Everything Trip had been planning to say at that point fled his mind, and the first words to come out where "You're from…" But she cut him off before he could even finish, stating in a very clipped tone, "The South, yes, I know. I am familiar with my own life history."

Trip's smile turned into a wide grin. "I was gonna say, the Panhandle."

Natalie blinked and leaned back a little, as if the sound of his Southern accent and his ability to pinpoint her birthplace hit her with an almost physical force. All she could manage to say was, "Pensacola." As Trip nodded in acknowledgement, she managed to add, "You're from Florida?"

Trip nodded again with a big grin. "Panama City. Just down the road." She looked like she was about to apologize, and now it was his turn to cut her off. Shaking his head slightly from side to side he said in a mild tone, "Don't worry about it. I completely understand. I've lived here eight years. I know what it's like to be a southerner in these parts." And then, he realized he still hadn't introduced himself. "I'm Trip Tucker," he added, extending his hand to her. She took his hand and shook it with the strength and vigor of meeting an old friend, even though they had never met before. As they shook hands, their eyes connected and each seemed to find something familiar in the other's gaze.

As they finally let their hands part, a spark of realization appeared in Natalie's eyes. "Trip Tucker. Are you related to Dr. Tucker?"

A confused look shot across Trip's face and his only response was to ask, "Dr. Tucker?"

Natalie's face returned to its previously disappointed expression. "Yes. The textcomm I got from Starfleet said they were sending Dr. Tucker, the person who came up with the revolutionary design for the plasma injectors, to assist with designing the exhibition."

Trip cocked his head to the side as he worked through what she had said. Obviously Starfleet Protocol had tried to make him sound as impressive as possible. He finally managed to reply, "Well, I guess that's me." A rather dubious expression replaced the look of disappointment on Natalie's face, but Trip really wanted to avoid going through the entire story, so he just offered, "It's a long story."

Natalie's eyes narrowed as she spoke. "Humor me."

Trip started to wonder if maybe she was thinking he had waylaid the real Dr. Tucker and was trying to con his way into the museum, so he figured he might as well just go through it all. Taking in a deep breath, he started in on the story, "Well, when I first signed on with Starfleet, Capt'n Jefferies put me on the job of trying to improve the plasma injectors, which he figured was one of the things holding back engine performance. He arranged for me to do some advanced seminars at Stanford. Well, I figured out that we could align the dilithium crystals in a different way that would really improve plasma flow and improve the performance of the warp reactor. So, I showed the concepts to the faculty at Stanford to get their feedback, and they thought it would work. So we set about making some prototypes, and they worked. Anyway, the faculty at Stanford thought it was a big deal, and they petitioned the university to award me a doctorate using my design as basically my dissertation project. So, yeah, I guess I'm the Dr. Tucker they promised you."

Natalie tipped her head slightly to the side as she considered his story. "But according to the information I've read, that was five or six years ago. You're not that old."

Trip smiled shyly. "No. I'm not that old. But I joined Starfleet when I was pretty young."

Natalie's face softened as she realized she might be speaking to one of the most intelligent men she had ever met. An expression of hopeful relief crossed her face as she asked in a hopeful tone, "So, you can explain all this technology to me?"

Trip answered with a sweeping nod of his head, a wide grin, and an air of total confidence, "Absolutely."

**Author's Notes**: Just to clarify, Rebecca whatshername is Becky from the deleted scene in episode 1 of season 3. I'm being a little hard on Archer here, by treating that scene as canon and maintaining the Erica Hernandez timeline as well (which pretty clearly the writers hadn't thought up yet when they created the Becky character, who never made it to the airwaves anyway), but I think it does fit with Archers, let us say, indecisiveness, when it comes to women.

All of Trip's brooding and sense of isolation is my way of trying to explain why he keeps reaching out to T'Pol in season 1, even after she is fairly rough on him in several instances. I just figured that Trip must have a deep empathy for someone who was so isolated in an alien environment, and probably had felt that way himself at some point. And this seemed like about the right place in his life for him to feel like that.


	3. Chapter 3

Natalie shows Trip what they have to work with and what she needs help with, and Trip gets himself into a tight spot.

**Disclaimers**

_Star Trek: Enterprise_ and its characters are copyright CBS/Paramount. No copyright infringement is intended by me. This work is solely for the purpose of entertainment and is not for profit.

**Acknowledgements**

Once again tremendous thanks to **Artisticmom2** at Delphic Expanse for her extremely helpful Beta reading.

**Chapter 3: Fortune Favors the Bold**

Trip and Natalie stood facing each other smiling, seemingly lost in time for a moment until finally Trip managed to say, "So, what, exactly, are you trying to figure out?"

Trip's question seemed to snap Natalie out of her distracted air, and she replied in a friendly tone, "Why don't we go take a look at the pieces we have to work with? Everything's laid out in Exhibit Hall B." Then, assuming he would agree, she started to turn to lead him to the exhibit hall. Trip signaled his consent by turning to walk with her.

As they started walking Natalie's face fell into an expression of worried thought. Looking ahead, he could see they were headed towards a long ramp that circled the large, round atrium to the building, and decided that he should try to make some small talk, or it was going to be a long, quite walk to where they were going. "So, you're new in town?" he asked, since he couldn't come up with anything better to say.

The question seemed to stir Natalie out of her worried thoughts. "Yes. I just got here last week. How did you know?"

Trip smiled as he silently complemented himself on his little bit of deduction, and then explained it to her. "Well, your tan looks pretty natural, and you can't get one like that in this part of California this time of year unless you're using a tanning booth."

Natalie smile almost shyly before responding, "I went to the Keys for a week before coming out here for this project." And suddenly she felt the need to add, "Just a chance to spend some time with a couple of girlfriends before being gone for so long."

Trip suddenly felt a little surge of, he wasn't sure exactly what, but something lifted his spirits as he got the feeling she was kind of hinting that she didn't have a boyfriends 'back home.' "The Keys are pleasant this time of year," he added wistfully. But as she didn't respond, he quickly realized she was drifting back into her worried thoughts. Trip decided that small talk probably wasn't what was called for here, so he just took a stab at what he thought was bothering her. "This exhibition's really important to you, isn't it?"

She replied simply, "You could say that."

Figuring he was on the right track, Trip pressed a little more, "Is it something personal?"

This time she replied with a little more emphasis, "You could say that." And this time Trip decided to wait her out. After a few more seconds of silence that seems to last forever for Trip, she finally added, "It's just my entire professional future on the line."

When she didn't continue, Trip finally quipped, "So, no pressure" in an effort to lighten the mood a little. But when she didn't smile even the tiniest bit, he decided this really was a pretty serious situation for her. "I'm sorry. I didn't really mean to make this seem unimportant," he said with a sincere tone of apology.

She responded in an apologetic tone herself, "No, it's just that. Well, it's complicated. This is my thesis project. I'm finishing up a dual master's program." Then, after pausing for a moment, she continued, "Art History and Museum Curation."

Trip nodded recognition, but remained quiet, figuring that now that she was answering his questions before he asked them, he'd just let her explain it all.

"So this exhibit and the reviews for it are basically my professional portfolio when I graduate. If I do well, then I should be able to get a decent job. If I do very well, they might even offer me a job here." But her voice trailed off after that statement.

Finally, after a silence that seemed to Trip to last forever, he finally had so say something, and since she didn't' seem to be thinking about what was going to happen if things went well, he simply asked. "So, is it really such a disaster if it doesn't go well? It's only your first exhibit, right?"

She looked over at him with a slightly sad look and then looked across the entrance hall to where the woman was sitting at the information desk and said, "There's a reason we have real people sitting at the welcome desk in art museums."

Trip took a quick glance at the information desk himself, and the woman sitting behind it and he realized, _those are the jobs for the people who don't make the cut_. No wonder she was worried. Not that there was anything wrong with making a living helping people find stuff at a museum, but he was pretty sure it wasn't the kind of job people imagined they'd have after six or seven years of college and grad school.

As they arrived at the end of the long, curved ramp, Natalie led them to a bank of elevators and pushed the call button. As the silence seemed to drag on, Trip tried to think of something to say that wouldn't sound too trite or come across as condescending. The best he could come up with was, "Well, the people running this place must have a lot of confidence, or they wouldn't have picked you in the first place." Of course, everyone she knew had probably told her that a dozen times by now too.

As they entered the elevator, Natalie finally started to speak again, this time in a quieter, almost tired tone. "It's just that, this exhibit is a little outside my range. This is an art museum, but the exhibit is really almost as much about the history of science and technology. I understand the concept of the exhibit. I mean, it's pretty clear really. It goes back to Hagel's idea that a work of art is an act of will. But when you think about it, so is designing something that breaks a barrier, like the speed of light. I mean, it's not exactly the same, but it's very similar."

Trip was glad the elevator stopped when it did, because he was having a little trouble keeping up with everything she was saying. He vaguely remembered that Hagel was a philosopher from a few hundred years ago. But all the philosophy of art and science stuff was way out of his wheel house. He remembered that he'd had to take a Philosophy of Science course back when he started his engineering masters, but that was when he was fourteen, and a very dim recollection. He started to think he might have oversold his ability to help if she was going to want him to relate Warp Theory to stuff some four hundred year old German philosopher said.

As he stood there pondering how hard it might be to find a copy of _Philosophy for Dummies_ to load onto his PADD, Trip noticed Natalie pull a small card from her pocket with her left hand and press it flat against an outlined area of the control panel. Without even thinking about it, he found his eyes focusing on her ring finger, which was absent any adornment, or tan line. She noticed his gaze and as she pulled the card back and slid it back into her pocket, she said with a slight smile, "We have some valuable pieces in here, so we're keeping security pretty tight." Trip nodded nonchalantly, and Natalie winked at him and continued as the elevator door opened, "Don't worry; we'll get you a key card of your own. You won't have to follow me around all day every day."

As they exited the elevator Trip's mind was entertaining the potential interpretations of the wink. _That's flirting right. She's flirting with, she has to be. But maybe she's just being friendly, like some girls are bubbly and friendly._ He concentrating so hard on the little debate in his head that he almost walked right into the ten foot tall barrier set up a few feet from the elevator. In an effort to recover from how foolish he was sure he was looking at the moment, he managed to say, "Didn't expect a wall there."

"We don't want people sneaking a peek before the opening. So we put these up just in case anyone gets past the security in the elevator," she said with a little amusement in her voice. Then she tilted her head to the side and indicated towards something that looked like scaffolding, "Follow me, this should give you a good view of what we have to work with."

As they approached the steep, narrow stairs that led up to a narrow, temporary platform about thirty feet in the air, he expected her to step aside to take the lead, but she didn't. As she started to climb the stairs, Trip's eyes couldn't help but drift to her exquisitely shaped derriere as it gently swayed from side to side. He waited long enough to ensure her swaying visage wouldn't be at direct eye level before he started following her up, but he couldn't help but keep watching. After a few steps, he decided he really did need to find something else to look at, in case she turned back to say something to him and caught him leering at her, and he was pretty sure by now he was close to crossing the line into leering.

In an effort to find anything else to focus his eyes on, Trip looked up, and suddenly realized what an amazing space the exhibition hall was. The ceiling was at least fifty feet high, and it was clear, allowing natural light to illuminate the entire hall. His eyes swept across the clear surface above him, and he finally realized just how large the place was. It had to be most of the top floor of the museum, covering a good part of the entire city block the place was sitting on. He blurted out the first thing that came to mind, without even thinking about it, "Wow, I've got to tell Lizzie about this place." Natalie hesitated on the steps for a second before continuing, and Trip felt a sudden need to add some clarification. "That's my sister. She's an architect, just graduated and trying to set up her own office. She's always saying I should let her know about the interesting buildings I've seen and why I liked 'm."

As he was finishing his explanation, his eyes started travelling down to the exhibit hall floor, which was coming into view now that he was above the barriers. He couldn't believe what he saw. In the center was the NX-Beta, but surrounding it were aircraft and space craft from the last two and a half centuries. Not just any aircraft and spacecraft though, these were the breakthrough designs. He spent the rest of the climb to the platform cataloging the assemblage. Eventually, Trip realized he was standing on the platform, and finally pulled his eye way from the assembled engineering marvels, and turned to locate Natalie. She was leaning forward a little against the railing of the scaffolding platform with her head turned towards him and a huge smile on her face.

"So, what do you think?" she asked, even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer already. To her, he looked like a boy who just got everything he'd wanted for Christmas, plus a few things extra he'd been afraid to ask for, and didn't realize Santa knew he wanted.

The only word Trip could come up with to answer her with was, "Wow."

Natalie's eyes sparkled as she asked with barely suppressed excitement, "I take it you're familiar with all the pieces in the exhibit."

Trip responded with a slight laugh, and then said. "You could say that. These are the really important designs in aerospace history. I've study every single one of them, the design intent, the tradeoffs that had to be made." Trip turned again to look over the collection of craft and continued trying to pick out just the most significant ones from the two dozen or so in front of him, "I mean… you've got a Wright Flyer, the X-1… All the US and Soviet stuff from the Space Race. I mean, the only thing missing is Cochrane's Phoenix."

Natalie face soured a little and a small frown appeared as she said with an apologetic air, "The Cochrane Institute was kind of prickly to work with. They didn't seem to want to help much."

Trip smirked a little and observed, "Well, then I guess it's true what they say about institutions taking on the personalities of their founders." As his mind returned to the here and now though, he started feeling confused. "I thought this was an exhibit about Warp technology?"

Natalie's eyes widened a little in surprise, as she realized his confusion. "Oh, no. The theme of the exhibit is human flight as an act of art. I asked Starfleet for help with the Warp technology because it's the only area I'm having trouble nailing down." Trip tilted his head to the side a little as he tried to wrap his brain around what she was telling him, and sensing he was still a little confused, Natalie tried to explain. "I was always good at science in school, even if I didn't like it very much. So I understand Bernoulli's Principle, Dynamic and Induced Lift, and how the fixed wing and rotary wing stuff works. And I don't have any problem with Newtonian Physics and all the rocketry stuff for early space flight. But the Warp theory, the Cochrane Equation, and how all the technology works to create a Warp Field. I just can't make heads or tails of it."

"Well, that's not really very surprising," Trip said with a slight grin.

Natalie shot him a slightly confused look, not sure if he was just making an observation, or hinting that he didn't think she was bright enough to understand. Finally, she said in a rather flat, but frosty tone. "Why is that?"

Trip's expression went from warm to worry at her change in tone, and he tried to explain. "It's hard to make sense of, because it doesn't make sense, at least not in a normal way." She still was looking somewhat confused, so he tried to elaborate, "The Cochrane Equation for example. It shouldn't balance… It should be unsolvable. That's why it doesn't make sense." Trip turned to look at the area where the NX Beta was sitting and realized that they had dismounted the Warp reactor and the Injector Assembly. He ran his tongue along the inside of his lower lip to his cheek as he tried to think of a way to help her figure it all out. _Maybe if we start with the technology and work backwards to the theory?_ Turning back to face her he said, "Let's start with the engine and work back from that."

Natalie's eye brightened a little, "Okay. Well, I understand the basic concept. You combine matter and anti-matter inside a containment field to create enough energy to heat the warp plasma. Then, you feed the warp plasma into where the warp coils are, and they absorb the energy from the plasma. As the warp coils get energized, they create the warp field."

Trip ran his tongue along the inside of his lip and into his cheek again as he scrunched his eyes up a little with confusion. "That's the one-hundred percent textbook answer… well, at least the really short version of it. So, what don't you understand?"

Natalie turned back towards the railing and put her arm out to point at the NX Beta, "That doesn't look anything like the plasma injector in the diagram."

Trip stepped to the side slightly to look over her shoulder and down her arm to see exactly what she was looking at, and quickly realized that she was obviously very confused about something. He smiled slightly as an impulse hit him. The rational part of his brain was trying to tell him this was a bad idea, and way too forward for a girl he'd just met, but he wasn't listening. Reaching around her, he put his hand on the railing, then he reached forward with his free hand and wrapped it gently around her slender wrist, and said softly, "That's because it's not a plasma injector. That's a warp nacelle." Then he slowly guided her pointing finger across the floor of the exhibition hall, to the other side of the warp NX Beta's dismounted warp reactor, and to the injector assembly. "Those are plasma injectors."

Natalie looked at where her finger was pointing, then back over her shoulder at him with a slightly confused look on her face and said, "But they're so small. I thought they were the key to breaking the Warp 2 barrier."

Trip smiled, and the words slipped out of his mouth before he could think to stop them, "And girls are always saying size doesn't matter." He regretted it as soon as he said it, and doubly so when he saw the way Natalie was scrunching up her face in disapproval. _And this is why you don't flirt with girls Trip Tucker, you're not any good at it._

While Trip was contemplating his lack of social skills, Natalie extracted her wrist from his hand and slowly turned around to face him. Leaning back against the railing to gain a little space between them and said in a disapproving tone, "You get that from a lot of girls, do you?"

Trips eyes starting to wander about the ceiling, then down to his shoes, then just about anywhere he could look to avoid seeing the disapproving look on her face. _What am I supposed to say to that, _he asked himself, and got no reply. After a moment though, he realized that she was now smiling at him in a mildly triumphant way, definitely letting him know that she had won the little verbal volley. Then she got a shy little smile on her face and looked down a little, and suddenly Trip felt an almost desperate need to kiss her, right here, right now. But he knew that was a bad idea, because he didn't want her to think that he was the kind of guy that just kissed strange girls he'd only just met, at least not the way he wanted to kiss Natalie right now. And he didn't want her to think that he thought she was the kind of girl that would kiss a strange guy that she'd just met back, at least not the way he wanted her to kiss him back right now.

But she was definitely looking like she expected him to do something. And for the life of him, Trip couldn't figure out what it was he was supposed to do. _AG and Archer are going laugh their butts off when I tell them about this at the 602 Club tonight_, he thought. And he was going to have to tell them, or make up a pretty damn good story about why he'd had such a great, awful first day at this new gig. And then he saw the way out. He scrunched up his eyes as he debated the idea with himself. It wasn't a great way out, but it was a way out. He finally decided he couldn't screw this up any more than he already had, so he went for it. Inclining his head towards the NX Beta, Trip asked, "How'd you like to meet the guys who flew that thing for the first time?"

**Authors Notes**: I know Trip is supposed to be a "charming" character, but in Two Days and Two Nights, he seems pretty hopeless when he's deliberately trying to be charming, so I don't think this characterization is really out of bounds. My take is that Trip is charming when he is just being himself, but seems to be kind of hopeless when he is actually "trying" to be charming.


	4. Chapter 4

One of Starfleet's more experienced officers decides to give Trip a little help (which he probably doesn't need), and give Archer some advice (which he probably won't take).

**Disclaimers**

Star Trek: Enterprise and its characters are copyright CBS/Paramount. No copyright infringement is intended by me. This work is solely for the purpose of entertainment and is not for profit.

**Acknowledgements**

Once again tremendous thanks to **Artisticmom2** at Delphic Expanse for her extremely helpful Beta reading.

**Chapter 4: If you're Taking Flak, It means you're Over the Target**

As he walked through the doors of the 602 Club, AG Robinson felt his age. It wasn't that he was old. Forty was hardly old these days. But had he really been coming here since he was twenty-five? He'd started getting this feeling every time he came here after they'd all decided that Thursday night would be Friday night for the "old hands." The Club was getting too crowded on Fridays, full of second year cadets enjoying their first weekend passes since starting the Schoolhouse, and newly graduated Ensigns showing of their shiny, if lonely new rank pip. And then there were all the hangers-on. Having a friend in Starfleet had become "hip" over the last few years, so lots of young professionals flooded the 602 Club on Friday nights now, looking to make a connection that they could add to their "friends list" or professional network. So, now Thursday night was Friday night for the… long service professionals. Yes, that was the preferred term. Much better than "old hands," which was one step away from "old timers." And that was a term that definitely was not going to fly.

As he approached the bar, he caught Ruby's eye and gave her a slow upward nod. That was one nice thing about having been coming here so long, he could order a drink without speaking a word. Everyone knew that a slow nod up was bourbon, and a quick nod down was beer for him. Having achieved his first priority, he started scanning the room for Archer and Trip. It didn't take long to spot them at one of the smaller, higher tables. He also noticed someone who looked distinctly out of place for a Thursday night here. She had the look of a young professional but didn't seem to be playing the part tonight. She was in a smart outfit, but she'd taken her jacket off and hung it over the back of the barstool she was sitting on. Her hair was down, but it had that slightly tussled look, as if she'd had it up earlier. And she was totally focused on whatever Trip was talking to her about. Archer was sitting there with a bemused look on his face, watching them.

AG waved at Archer with a brisk, flick of the wrist half salute from the bar and once he had his attention shot him a quizzical look. Jon shook his head just a little, but emphatically enough to get his point across, _No, she's not with me_. AG nodded his head slightly and smiled a little, even if he was disappointed that he wouldn't be jousting with Archer for the girl's attention tonight. Jousting with Archer over just about anything had become one of AG's favorite pastimes lately. _Tonight's going to be interesting_, he thought.

As his drink arrived on the bar next to him, AG took a moment to try and size up what exactly was happening at the table across the room. Trip and the young woman were mostly facing away from him, but he had enough of a view of Trip's face to see he had to be talking about something technical from the look of excitement he had. The woman didn't appear to be saying much, but nodded now and then. It also looked like Trip was scribbling something down on a napkin while he talked. Archer was still just sitting there with a half-smile on his face, and Trip and the girl seemed to have completely forgotten he was even at the table.

AG grabbed the tumbler of bourbon from the bar and headed across the room to the table. As he approached, he tried to focus in on Trip's voice. From the tone, he could tell Trip was talking about a topic he loved, and as the words become more distinct over the low din of conversations a small smile came across AG's face. _Of course, what else would Trip be talking to a pretty girl about… Warp theory_. Arriving at the table, he walked around to the open spot on the far side and stood their quietly, observing the pair opposite him.

"… almost impossible to balance. See, each one of these smaller equations is an expression in at least one of the other equations," Trip said in an excited tone, as he was pointing to the things he'd scribbled on the cocktail napkin in front of him. "So if you change one to balance it, it changes the values in at least some of the others. You have to balance all the equations simultaneously for the Cochrane Equation to work."

"So, how do you do it? How do you make it balance?" the young woman asked in a soft, southern accent.

Trip leaped at her question as if he'd been waiting all his life to answer it. "Well, the only one that was ever able to do it just in his head, with paper and pencil to explain it, was Cochrane himself. But he said the way to think about it was to stop thinking about it as an equation, and think about it as something you felt, and heard, and saw, rather than reasoned. So think of each one of these equations as something you can see, or hear or feel. Say this one is tempo, this one is pitch, this one is texture, this one is clarity, this one is color, and so on."

The young woman seemed to be thinking this over, and finally said in a half question, half statement, "So we could set up an audio-visual display, where people could try and balance things, to give them an idea of how all these elements have to be just right."

Trips eyes got even brighter at the idea and he started nodding and smiling brightly. "Sure, I can talk to the guys at the computer modeling section and see if we can put together a basic program to do that. It shouldn't be too difficult. And I can talk to your fabrication people about putting it all together."

Archer shot AG a look as the pair across the table sat smiling at each other and nodding in agreement, so AG figured it was time he made is presence known and found out who the mystery woman was. Not one for subtlety, at least not when it wasn't absolutely mandatory, he simply spoke in a clear voice, "Hi Trip, who's your friend?"

The question jolted the two young people on the other side of the table back to an awareness of the present location and circumstances, and they both turned to look at the source of the voice asking the question. Trip smiled his boyish grin and responded, "Hi AG. I didn't notice you walk up. How long have you been standing there?"

"Just a minute or two," AG replied and then raised his eyebrows slightly to remind Trip he still hadn't answered his question.

Trip got the hint, and turned slightly towards Natalie and extended his hand as if making a formal introduction, "This is Natalie. She's in charge of that exhibit I got tagged to help out with downtown."

AG set his drink down on the table and offered his hand politely. Natalie grasped his fingers with hers, in a ladylike acceptance and AG added, "I'm AG Robinson." Natalie nodded her acknowledgement, in a professional manner, and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you sir," then slid her fingers free after one quick shake of his hand.

After a brief pause, Trip added in a cheerful voice, "She's from Pensacola, can you believe it?"

AG gave Trip his best matter of fact tone in reply, "Yes Trip, I can believe that." Then he caught Trip, Archer, and Natalie trade conspiratorial glances.

After a brief moment Natalie asked, "So, is it true you three stole the NX Beta?"

AG did his best to resist smiling. It was clearly a set up, and from the way Archer and Trip were eyeing each other, they'd bet something on how he'd respond. His answer was automatic by this point, so he didn't have to spend any time thinking about it, "I'm not aware of any such incident, and even if I were, I wouldn't be at liberty to discuss it." As the words rolled off his tongue though, he realized this was an opportunity to turn the tables a bit on Trip and Archer. After a brief pause, he added, "But, we could discuss the hypothetical circumstances surrounding how that might have happened, perhaps over dinner some time?"

Natalie's eyes narrowed and she tilted her head to the side just a little as she tried to decide if this man was really forward enough to ask her out after having just met her a couple of minutes ago, of if he was just trying to throw a wrench into Trip and Archer's bet. But she quickly realized it that didn't really matter. She smiled at him, and with a slightly mischievous glint in her eye she replied, "Well, I'm pretty new to town, so I'm not sure how much free time I'm actually going to have in the evenings, so I'll have to let you know about that." She then took a quick glance to her side to see a slightly dazed and confused look on Trip's face before adding, "I need to powder my nose. Will you gentlemen excuse me for a moment?" And without waiting for a reply she was sliding off her bar stool and standing up.

Trip suddenly felt an urgent need to reassert his role as the man who'd invited her to the party so he stood up as well and asked, "Would you like me to get you another drink while you're gone?"

Natalie smiled warmly at him and answered in a sweet tone, "That would be great Trip."

Trip stood and watched her walk away until she was lost in the growing crowd that was filling the club, then, just as he was about to turn towards the bar, AG grabbed his glass and held it up stating cheerfully, "Don't worry about me Trip, I've got plenty left." Trip shot him a look that managed to be both angry and confused at the same time, and headed of towards the bar with a determined stride. After Trip had taken a few steps away from the table, AG waved to Ruby to get her attention, and then shook his head slowly, which she immediately recognized as his signal to slow Trip down at the bar. Having ensured he'd have a few minutes at least to talk to Jon alone, AG turned back towards him and saw exactly what he expected to see. Archer was fuming, as he always did when he was angry and couldn't vent. AG couldn't help but smile, which just made Jon even angrier.

"What the hell was that about?" Archer asked in a low but furious tone. "I gave you the wave off. She's here with Trip."

AG gave him his best 'are you really that dense' look, and responded, "I have no intention of taking her out anywhere. But sometimes your boy needs a little push." Archer gave him a questioning look, so AG continued. "How long was it before Trip realized he wasn't just 'hanging out a lot' with Lisa?'"

Jon was taken aback slightly, but then, after reflecting a moment, got a slightly worried look on his face and admitted "Forever. It was actually kind of scary. I've never seen a guy so clueless about his own love life." Then Archer got a little angry again and fired back, "But I think he gets it this time."

AG shrugged his shoulders slightly and replied, "Well then, no harm, no foul."

Archer asked incredulously, "Don't you ever apologize?"

AG smiled a little and replied, "One of the basic rules of life. Never apologize. It's a sign of weakness." Archer looked a little stunned by that, but before he could say anything, AG just pressed on, "Besides, she knew exactly what I was doing. That's why she got up and left right after. She wants the idea that he better make his intentions known pretty quick, or someone else might just offer to help find ways to spend her time bouncing around that over-smart brain of his for a few minutes." AG let that sink into Jon's mind before starting up a new tack in the conversation, "So, what do you know about this girl?" His tone was flat, but that was deliberate, to conceal his actual concern. Trip had worked for him for almost three years by now, and he really didn't want to see the guy walk into bad situation. He was a good kid, and deserved to have his friends look out for him.

Jon just shrugged his shoulders and replied evenly, "You know about as much as I do. Her name's Natalie. She's from Pensacola, and she's in charge of whatever this thing is Trip's assigned as the technical expert on." Then, after a short pause, Archer added, "And Trip invited her here to talk to you and me about the NX Beta flight."

AG first nodded and then started shaking his head as he replied, "But she's not really interested in talking to us, is she."

Archer shook his head with an expression that somehow managed to be half a smile and half a frown at the same time, and then added, "They were here when I arrived about half an hour ago, and ever since I sat down at the table, I've felt like the third wheel on a bicycle built for two." Then Jon got a little angry again and asked. "Why are you so concerned? What are you now, his mom?"

"I was thinking of myself as more of a father figure," AG replied, standing up just a little straighter and squaring his shoulders as he said it. "You seem to have the mom side all wrapped up the way you dote on the boy," he added with a little smile. Before Archer could respond, AG cut him off, "So, here's what I think we should do Jon. We finish up this round of drinks and all head out to dinner together. Then, you and I are gonna get called back to Starfleet Headquarters for an emergency meeting of some sort, and leave the kids to have some time alone."

Archer narrowed his eyes a little and half asked suspiciously, "You've done this before."

AG smiled and simply said, "Age and guile beats youth and enthusiasm every time," then winked at Archer, as a not so subtle reminder that he had five years on Jon. Then he added, "Besides, someone has to help the boy figure out that asking a girl to go meet two other guys is hardly an ideal first date."

Glancing over at the bar, AG saw that Trip would be heading back pretty soon, so he decided to bring up the other thing he wanted to talk to Archer about in private. "Not to change the subject, but there are three people I know personally who are mad as hell at you right now." Archer shot him a quizzical look, so AG explained, "All of them thought they had a decent shot at being the Comm Officer on the first NX until they heard you'd got Hoshi Sato to sign up with Starfleet. Xeno-linguistics is a pretty small field. Everyone knows who she is."

Archer narrowed his eyes again. "So you think Forest is wrong? We shouldn't be looking for the best people for these crews?" Jon asked incredulously.

AG answered in a slightly tired tone, "No, I think Forest is exactly right. These ships need the best crews. And not just because it's important for Starfleet to succeed. Forest is right about that too. This is important for Earth. This may be our last chance to prove to ourselves we can do great things just to do them, not because we're trying to beat someone else. If we blow this chance, we many never get another one."

"So, what's your point then?" Archer asked in a slightly testy tone.

AG maintained an even tone, despite the fact that he was starting to get a little annoyed at Archer's attitude. "My point is Jon, you're ticking a lot of people off…. people who have powerful friends. You know what Xeno-linguists do when they're not being Comm Officers on ships. They work as translators. The more talent and experience they have, the more important the people they translate for are. Every admiral's staff has a couple staff linguist. Hell, half of the Xeno-linguists on the United Earth President's staff are Starfleet officers on loan. When a few admirals and maybe even the President know you personally, you've got powerful friends. So just fly straight and level and watch your back. That's all I'm saying."

Archer looked like he still wasn't quite getting the point. "Look Jon, you know the deal. It's you and me for one and two. Gardner's a decent pilot, but he's bean counter, that's why he's running the budget and contracting for the program. He's already had two commands. He'll make admiral long before either of us are out of the captain's chair. Hell, he might make admiral before the NX-01 launches. And don't get me started on Duvall. Don't get me wrong, he's a great pilot and one hell of a training mission designer and evaluator. That's why he's running the crew training piece for the program. But he's got the personality of a rock. Neither of them are ever gonna be on the bridge of one of the new NX class ships, unless they're taking a tour."

Archer was still giving him a rather suspicious look over the offer of friendly advice, so AG decided to put a decidedly self-interested spin on it. "So, where's the glory for me in getting chosen as the captain of the NX-01 if you flame out and they're my only competition?"

Jon sat quietly absorbing everything AG was saying. He was never quite sure how to take AG's "advice." When AG had told him picking Erica as his XO was a bad idea, he'd thought that the man just wanted to make life a little harder for him. Everyone knew that she was a top flight pilot and officer. But after that had nearly blown up both his and Erica's careers, he had to admit that AG had point. _Putting the two of us together on a small ship doing three month patrols around the solar system was an invitation to disaster_. Still, he had the feeling AG wanted the "first captain" slot at badly as he did, so it was hard to take his counsel at face value. And Jon was pretty sure Trip had probably let slip how easy it was to twist his tail where Hoshi Sato was concerned. But then again, maybe all AG really wanted was a good, tough competition. Eventually, Archer shrugged his shoulders and grunted his acknowledgment to AG.

Before AG could try and make his point again another way, Trip was approaching the table with one drink in each hand and looking around with a little concern that Natalie wasn't back yet. But as soon as he started to look around to see if he could spot her, she was walking back to the table. Trip put the drinks down and pulled her stool out from under the edge of the table for her, as she smiled warmly at him, and all of Trip's agitation seemed to melt away. AG and Archer watched the two silently communicate with each other and Archer turned slightly towards AG and gave him his best 'I told you so' look. And now it was AG's turn to simply shrug in response.

**Authors Notes**:Not much to really say about this one.This chapter's a little shorter than the others. I had planned on it being the last one, but once I got into it I realized that it would have to be much longer to wrap this up. So I decided this was a good place to break it in half. I had a lot more stuff on AG Robinson's background at the beginning, but it seemed like overkill for this story, so I will probably just post that as a short one-shot at some point.


End file.
